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Highway deaths remain largest portion of transportation fatalities

As the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) begins developing its strategic plan for fiscal years 2018 through 2022 – aiming as always to find ways to improve transportation safety – it is emphasizing that highway deaths remain the largest single component of transportation-related fatalities, far exceeding those in the railroad, aviation, marine, and pipeline sectors.

Safety data indicates 39,339 people lost their lives in transportation accidents in 2016 compared to 37,309 who died in 2015, with highway fatalities accounting for 95% of all transportation fatalities last year.

Some 2,030 more people died in transportation accidents in 2016 compared to 2015 – including 57 more medium- and heavy-duty truck drivers, according to NTSB’s numbers.

In 2016, 722 medium- and heavy-duty truck drivers were killed on the job, up from 665 back in 2015, the agency said.

"Unfortunately, we continue to see increases in transportation fatalities," noted Robert Sumwalt, NTSB’s chairman. "We can do more – we must do more – to eliminate the completely preventable accidents that claim so many lives each year.”

Most notably, the number of fatal general aviation accidents decreased to 213 in 2016, resulting in the fatal accident rate dropping below one fatal accident per 100,000 flight hours for the first time in 50 years, NTSB added.